Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Eva's Bakery

Review: Lunch, lunch, lunch. Where to go for lunch? Seems like we're always on the look-out for that next great lunch spot. Criteria include, but are not limited to: not too expensive, good food, quick, convenient location. Eva's Bakery has some things going for it. It's not too expensive. It has a nice, convenient downtown location. The atmosphere is quaint and unpretentious (if you don't include the Relief Society dyed-blonde thirty-somethings who talked like woo girls enjoying a girls' mid-day out). But, like always, it comes down to the food. The food is king.

I started with the French onion soup.

Now, I must admit, my favorite component of a French onion soup is the cheesy soaked-in-oniony-broth crostino on top. (Well, to be entirely candid, the farinaceous part of any recipe is usually my favorite.) The soup included, not one, but three cheesy crostini. And they were money. Wonderfully soggy. Mmm. The soup itself was alright, but not my preference. I prefer a deeply rich soup. This was a lighter version without the caramel flavors of well cooked onions.

On to the main course: salad nicoise. This is a classic and beautiful French salad, and when something is as iconic as a salad nicoise, you either need to make the best icon possible, or change it up in such a way that you improve upon the classic recipe. Eva went with the latter option, and decided to use tuna salad instead of straight tuna. It didn't work as planned. It muddied the waters as it were by adding fat and other elements that took away from the tuna, and, hence the salad. I liked the salad as a salad, but not as a salad nicoise.

Now, I must say I saw a lot of dishes that looked quite good. And they may well be. Additionally, the pastries made my eyes dance. So, it could be I just ordered the wrong items. That said, I was happy to have lunched with a dear friend at Eva's. She made up for the just okay food I chose.